Chapter 49: Conflict

Inside the factory shed, dozens upon dozens of underlings joked, cursed, and shouted at one another, using this rare break time to chat loudly. Some even started playing cards in small groups after eating, venting their abundant energy.

Chen Chong, unhurried and relaxed, gnawed on his flatbread while casually scanning his surroundings with his gaze.

From mealtime until now, apart from the four captain-level figures like Gu Jun and Yin Hu, he had not yet seen any other Awakeners. Even Tie Shan was nowhere to be seen.

“It’s already the third day since the jailbreak. If Lin Kun and the others are still alive, they should have reached the Dawn Gathering Place by yesterday.”

Chen Chong’s thoughts drifted:

“I wonder how the Dawn Gathering Place will react internally? With Qiao Jun as their inside contact, Blood General might have already received the news.”

According to Lin Kun, the Dawn Gathering Place was built against a mine, and the survivors within the territory numbered over three to four thousand. Its population and settlement scale were twice as large as Blood General’s Crimson Territory, and its overall strength was likewise far superior.

The Dawn Gathering Place was only a bit more than a hundred kilometers from Crimson Territory. To have developed to such a scale, its leader had to be a powerful Transcendent on par with Blood General. Otherwise, given Blood General’s greed and cruelty, he would have long since launched an invasion and swallowed up the Dawn Gathering Place.

However, by Chen Chong’s estimation, even if the Dawn Gathering Place intended to move against the base, it would not happen in the short term.

First, the base had just experienced a jailbreak incident and was surely still at its highest state of alert. Going there directly now might mean charging headfirst into a trap. Second, unlike Crimson Territory, which was a place of brutal dictatorship under Blood General, the Dawn Gathering Place was a relatively loose alliance of survivors. Mobilizing all elite forces, plus formulating plans, tactics, routes, and preparing all kinds of combat supplies, would require time for coordination.

If they aimed to minimize losses, the Dawn Gathering Place might also first conduct a thorough reconnaissance before deciding on a specific attack plan. All these factors determined that the Dawn Gathering Place would not move that quickly.

As for whether Dawn would allow the base to exist, it was basically something Chen Chong never even considered.

Whether it was the base’s superior water and electricity resources, or the various well-preserved precision instruments inside, it was a place of immense value. For any settlement leader, this base could entirely serve as a foundation to open up another small settlement, relieving pressure on the original territory.

Moreover, this base was actually occupied by a group of white people of unknown origin!

Hmm?

Just then, as if sensing something while pondering, Chen Chong’s eyelids slightly lifted.

In the crowd, three underlings with painted faces and exaggerated hairstyles wore malicious smiles. Holding their meal boxes, they weaved through the noisy crowd toward the stone table where Chen Chong sat. Then, they brazenly sat down by Chen Chong’s stone platform, casually revealing the homemade guns at their waists.

Chen Chong recalled that these three underlings had been seen behind that triangular-eyed Awakener earlier. His eyes narrowed. “You three, need something from me?”

“How sumptuous…”

“Damn, I haven’t eaten meat in days.”

The three underling grunts acted as if they hadn’t heard Chen Chong, staring at the large piece of meat steak on his table and licking their lips. Then, the narrow-eyed, thin-lipped underling on Chen Chong’s left let out a chuckle.

“You’re Chen Chong, right? Looking at you, there’s no way you can finish all this, right? Let me help you out.”

As his words fell, this underling acted as if Chen Chong didn’t exist, a dismissive smirk on his face, and directly reached out to grab the meat steak on the table. At the same time, Li Bao and Zhang Long, the two Hunting Squad captains, watched this scene from afar with mocking smiles on their faces.

A ferocious arc suddenly tugged at the corner of Chen Chong’s mouth as well.

Clang!

The next instant, cold light slashed through the air. Chen Chong drew the tactical knife at his waist with lightning speed, brutally and with deadly precision impaling the filthy, reaching hand through its center, nailing it directly onto the tabletop!

In the half-second before this underling could even feel the pain, his scream still brewing in his throat, and before all the underlings present could react, Chen Chong’s movements were swift and ferocious to the extreme. At the same time, he propped himself up with one arm, his body soaring into the air, and his legs kicked out fiercely in mid-air. With a muffled sound of tearing wind, they slammed viciously into the two other underlings on his middle and right!

Crack!

Chen Chong’s strength was now immense. Amid the faint sound of shattering sternums, the two underlings didn’t even let out a grunt before they were directly sent flying, as if struck head-on by a galloping elephant, hurtling backward! Only after slamming heavily into others did they roll onto the ground, unable to even get up!

“Ah—!”

Only then did the heart-wrenching scream of the underling whose hand was nailed to the tabletop echo through the entire factory shed, deafening! Everything had happened too fast. Before the other underlings could even react, Chen Chong, who had just fiercely kicked the other two flying, reached out with a large hand. He viciously grabbed the hair of the screaming underling, whose hand was pinned and who was trying to draw his gun, and smashed his head brutally against the hard stone platform!

Bang! Amid the dull thud of flesh striking solid matter, this underling cleanly passed out, collapsing onto the stone tabletop and ceasing to struggle. This was with Chen Chong deliberately holding back to avoid death or injury; otherwise, with his current strength, that head might well have burst open like a watermelon.

In the silence, blood rapidly pooled and spread across the tabletop. After doing all this, Chen Chong seemed as if he had done something utterly trivial. He lightly dusted off his hands, sat back down, and unhurriedly continued his meal.

The underling with the impaled hand lay sprawled on the table, blood pooling around him, his life or death unknown. Yet Chen Chong simply ate unhurriedly facing him, as if treating the nearly one hundred underlings in the massive factory shed as if they were invisible!

A dead silence fell over the factory shed.

“What outrageous gall! What outrageous gall!”

At that moment, not far away, Li Bao’s expression changed drastically as he flew into an insane rage. He abruptly shot to his feet and roared furiously,

“This bastard dares to attack someone here! Tie him up for me, I want to skin him alive!”

The three people sent over just now were all members of his Hunting Squad. He had originally only thought that this Chen Chong was a bootlicker who had latched onto Blood General’s coattails, and wanted to humiliate such a parasite a little. But he never expected this Chen Chong to be so vicious and audacious, daring to attack right here in front of them, the captains. And his three long-time squad members had been beaten like dogs, causing him to lose all face!

As he spoke, Li Bao, like a brutal beast, suddenly stood up and strode toward Chen Chong.

Inside the factory shed, many of the underlings near the incident immediately recognized Chen Chong. Combined with Li Bao’s echoing roar, they all looked at one another in dismay.